Tim and I want to thank everyone for their kind and thoughtful e-mails over the last couple of days about Charlie, our little Cape May Warbler. Throughout his time with us, we received countless letters of encouragement, support, care and interest, and along the way, have met many wonderful and interesting people of all ages, both in person and via e-mail. So amazing and wonderful how a little bird can bring such excitement and joy. Charlie was a very special and smart little bird, when we would open the kitchen window to refill his feeding dish, he would watch perched on the fence only a foot away, he would also come back into the shelter when we called his name. He survived freezing blizzards, a near-attack in his shelter by a small hawk, and a frozen leg which thawed out under the heater. He fiercely protected his food source from other small birds, but was no match for the hoards of starlings that we have, who constantly tried to get into his shelter and steal his food. We took photos of him three hours before he left for the last time on Thursday, and he was healthy and well, see photo link below:
http://imgur.com/bdzew4t We really believed Charlie was going to make it through to the spring. Needless to say, we really miss seeing him, and somehow, looking out of our kitchen window just isn’t the same, well not for now anyway. One bird who is happy about the disappearance of Charlie, is our resident Mockingbird, Marty. He has been with us for about three years now, on and off, and was angry and bewildered that a heated shelter had taken the place of his feeding station at the kitchen window! He is happy again now that the shelter has been dismantled and he is once again king of the feeding tray! Incidentally, we think the reason that Charlie originally stopped by our place way back at the beginning of December, was that there were grapes out for Marty, and as it turned out, grapes were Charlie’s favourite food as well! Hope to see you all out there sometime… Miranda O’Hara _______________________________________________ ONTBIRDS is presented by the Ontario Field Ornithologists - the provincial birding organization. Send bird reports to [email protected] For information about ONTBIRDS including how to unsubscribe visit http://www.ofo.ca/site/page/view/information.ontbirdssetup Posting guidelines can be found at http://www.ofo.ca/site/page/view/information.ontbirdsguide
